Industry, Real Wages, And Childish Managers

This weekend, the CEOs of several German car manufacturers decided to behave like three year old kids because they really want that chocolate bar low labor costs; and are against a minimum wage of €8.50 and for a huge amount of "temporary" workers. The CEOs of Daimler, VW, Opel and BMW were interviewed by the Bild Zeitung and Daimler CEO Zetsche even threatened Mutti* Merkel that the company would "have to think about a relocation of production".

Let's take a look at some of the firms and the overall situation in the German industry.

On Productivity, Diversification And Engineering - Or Why Engineering Jobs Might Be Endangered By Machines

Many economists seem to believe that productivity increases come from the automation of jobs "in the middle", which has led to both a higher demand for low and high skilled labor. For example, David H. Autor and David Dorn recently wrote an article in the NYT, which is based on that believe. They argue that people performing "abstract tasks that require problem-solving, intuition, persuasion and creativity", working in professions like "law, medicine, science, engineering, advertising and design" "benefit from computers". Let me focus on engineering and design and show that these assumptions do not show the whole picture. Also, I will focus on only one industry: automotive

Economic Arguments on Airstrip One

Airstrip One, formerly known as United Kingdom, is headed towards political and economical irrelevance. British industrial products are for the most part nothing but the bread crumbs left over by important countries like the US, Germany, and India. All that seems to be left is the banking sector. Still economists and government officials argue as if the Island and a third still had some relevance. As if it mattered if they went for austerity or not. The small state doctrine has turned Britain into what it is today Still conservative journalists live in some kind of fantasy empire, and tend to blame immigrants (Jeremy Warner, Telegraph) for bad productivity performance. But there are only a few industrial bright spots left; and those are in part not even British anymore.